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Prep roundup: Wildcat soccer team second in tournehy

The Fruita Monument boys soccer team finished second and Montrose finished third at the Air Academy Tournament in Colorado Springs on Saturday.

Fruita Monument lost in the championship game to Air Academy 7-2, and coach Dan McKee said the Wildcats were tired and sick.

“We’re passing around the bottle of Pepto-Bismol on the bus,” McKee said. “I’ve never seen a team get hit this hard by sickness in all my years of coaching.”

The Wildcats beat Fossil Ridge 3-2 earlier in the day with Wesley Padgett scoring two goals.

Montrose won the third-place game, beating Fossil Ridge 3-0 after losing 1-0 to Air Academy earlier in the day.

Montrose coach Jim Pavlich estimated Air Academy’s goal sailed nearly 45 yards before landing in the back of the net. Montrose goalie Keegan Sullinger narrowly missed the ball as it snuck between his outstretched hand and the goal.

The Indians’ offense came out firing in the third-place game against Fossil Ridge. They scored three goals by winning scuffles and creating space in the penalty box.

Summit 6, Palisade 0: After losing senior goalie Chris Valdez to concussion-like symptoms Friday, Palisade struggled in a 6-0 loss to Summit. The Tigers jumped to a 4-0 lead at halftime and outshot Palisade 23-5.

Softball

Central bounced back from a rough day Friday to win both of its games Saturday in the Dave Sanders Memorial Tournament.

The Warriors collected 15 hits to beat Bear Creek 10-2 in its first game of the day, then used a five-run fifth inning to put away Smoky Hill 8-5 in the second game.

Taryn Smith and Tyler Hayes each had three hits and two runs batted to lead Central’s offense against Bear Creek. Freshman pitcher Sierra Batchelor pitched a complete game, limiting Bear Creek to three hits, walking one and striking out five.

Another freshman pitcher, Melissa Gellermann, won the Smoky Hill game, and Batchelor, Hayes and Baylea Hice each collected two hits. Hayes hit two doubles.

The wins came after Central went 1-2 on Friday, losing 10-0 to D’Evelyn and 6-2 to Cherry Creek, and winning 9-5 against Pueblo Central.

“Yesterday was a little frustrating. Today was a lot of fun,” Central coach Scott Else said. “It was just a completely different attitude. We were diving into bases, we were turning double plays. We hit and played defense, and we got two good pitching performances from our freshmen pitchers.”

Eagle Valley Tournament: Cedaredge won both of its games Saturday. The Bruins beat Eagle Valley 10-5 as Kaitlyn Kissner and winning pitcher Marissa Cantrell each had two hits. Cedaredge then beat Grand Valley 16-6 with Jazmine Gomez, TiJay Lehman, Heather Wilczek and Hailey Lofley each delivering two hits.

Mesa Ridge Tournament: Palisade finished 1-4 at the Mesa Ridge Tournament, beating Adams City 25-5, 25-12 for its win. Lexi Hall led Palisade with four kills.

Cross-Country

Palisade’s Greta VanCalcar set a course record in the girls race at the Battle Mountain Invitational cross-country meet.

VanCalcar cruised around the 5-kilometer Beaver Creek Ski Resort course in 20 minutes, 53 seconds, helping the Bulldogs finish sixth as a team in the 20-team meet.

Palisade also had the boys champion as Jake Erickson clocked in at 18:39 to win by more than a minute, according to Bulldogs coach Tim Reetz. Teammate Anders VanCalcar was eighth with a time of 19:55 as the Palisade boys finished sixth.